Senior Concertos!

Hi,

My life has been pretty busy, but with music it has been full of senior concertos.

For those who don’t know, concertos are pieces of music that are basically whole songs that are solos for one instrument with an orchestra backing them up as accompaniment. I am lucky enough to go to a high school where seniors can pick and play their own concerto with the orchestra. Recently there was a concert with just senior concertos for my orchestra. Unfortunately due to music shipping issues and miscommunication, the music I was preparing did not come in time for this concert. But, I’m happy to say that my concerto was just pushed back to the last concert of the year instead, which is later this week.

Anyways, there was a lot of prep work for the senior concertos. There were seven different pieces featuring an oboe, clarinet, trumpet, 2 cellos, and 2 violins. It was rather difficult at times because we were rehearsing during testing week, so there was rarely a time when everybody was in class. That said, all the soloists worked the butt off and came in prepared to play with the orchestra given the time constraints. The concert was phenomenal and I was super proud of all my fellow classmate-soloists.

My concerto is coming up this week and I’m trying to be prepared as possible. I’m playing the second movement of John Carmichael’s Phoenix Flute Concerto. I am super excited for it to all come together. I have had this piece for over a year now and performed it in two masterclasses this past winter in preparation for this concerto. I have gotten lots of helpful advice and I hope that it will show. There have been bumps in the road though, from practicing plateaus, lack of motivation, shipping delays, time constraints with the orchestra, and not having a harp accompaniment — this has not been easy. But I am always trying to make the best out of the situation and find a way around or a different solution. For example my cadenza (the part in the concerto where the orchestra stops playing and the soloist plays something crazy) is a duet with a harp. But nobody at my school plays harp and the professional we asked was unable to help us. This looked like a big predicament, but the solution was to ask my friend Eran to play the piano adjustment of the harp part. And then the problem was solved.

I have also been practicing in various locations to help me get ready from onstage alone, onstage with an orchestra, in a park, in my room, in the dark, in my grandparent’s house, in my neighbor’s house, and even in front of a community gathering. I’d like to think that this prepares me for new environments that are different and distracting, which will be what it’s like in performance.

This past weekend I also played another concerto — the first movement of a Telemann flute concerto. It was a much easier piece and a lot less time and energy was put into it. I had only two rehearsals with everybody else. The “orchestra” consisted of two violins, a viola, a cello, and an organ/harpsichord (I honestly can’t tell the difference between the two). I looked at the piece for less than a week and practiced for only a few hours. But, it was really fun to put together and reminded me how much I like music and the music community. Afterwards, a lot of people congratulated me and were impressed at my skills since the audience consisted of several people that I knew and didn’t know who had never heard me before.

I’m looking forward to my concerto and my last high school concert ever! I can’t wait to share what happens with everyone.

-Jovie